I was at a colleague’s wedding today noon, when I learned that Baraat, coming from Lahore, has been stopped from entering the city at G.T. Road by the security officials. As per the live update coming from different cell phones connected with individuals present on the spot, the guys with the guns were in no mood to listen to anything. They were not even interested in checking the cars, only to learn that this was merely a baraat, and that the baraatis have not even any remote plans to join BB’s protest. The groom returned back and tried to enter from motorway, going all the way to Chakwal, Balkasar and Chakri only to meet the same fate again. At this moment, they talked to bride’s father, who happens to be a guy with a crescent and few stars on his shoulders in Armed Forces of Pakistan, and asked him to find some solution to the, one of its kind, problem. I got busy with something and missed the transmission for a while. When I joined back, by then, the groom was able to enter from Chakri interchange. I dont know if it was the bride to make this happen or the groom managed the security-guys on his own, but they eventually made it to the marriage hall.

BB says that she is proud of today’s outcome: one call for protest has jammed half of the country, and that she will continue with such calls.

Alarm bells for all the brides whose baraats are planned to come from outside the city in the weeks to come. Make sure your day doesn’t collide with BB’s, as the vice-versa doesn’t seem to be practical. And the grooms too, who plan to bring the brides from other cities, your bride may be denied the entry on the way back home :)

PS: At the wedding more than one versions of the story were available, all claiming to be live :)

Globalization has its advantages and disadvantages both.

When I was roaming in the Jinnah Super Market with my family, something caught my attention.

“MANGLE SUTRA” is the bonded necklace that is inherent to Hindu religious traditions and the bride wears it alongwith the red colored “tika” spot on the forehead as long as her man is alive. I have learned this from Indian movies. (*Grins*) I know there are many Hindus in Pakistan too, at first I thought that this was a product imported for them, but when I asked the lady receptionist about who buys this stuff, she said mostly Muslim women.

Culture does impact other cultures.

People evolve and so do cultures. But is it really just to mingle so much that it becomes indiscernible to decide what belongs to which culture and eventually we all just lose track of what actually was ours that we used to be so proud of??

If you know what I am talking of.

If you don’t, attend any modern-age marriage ceremony in Pakistan!!!

Yesterday rumors spread like fire in town of a house arrest of Gen. Musharraf and a coup by Gen. Kiyani.

As Daily Times reported:

Cell phones rang a great deal and text messages were exchanged perhaps in millions as rumours spread on Monday that President General Pervez Musharraf had been put under house arrest with General Ashfaq Kiyani taking over as the Army chief. Although there was no truth whatsoever in the matter, the rumour mill went into motion early in the morning and it was not until late in the day that things died down.

BBC has some story too:

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf was forced to dismiss rumours circulating on Monday that he had been placed under house arrest, just two days after he declared emergency rule. As things stand, there is little reason to believe that Gen Musharraf, who is both president and head of the army, is in imminent danger of being removed from office by force.

Is there any such possibility??

Over the period of last few months I have seen a growth in the number of luxury cars with “green number plates” cruising on the streets of the capital. You can easily find super luxury sedans (some of them cost more than 1.8 Million Pak Rupees) to luxury hatchbacks driving the “maim sahibs” to shopping markets in posh E & F sectors. You will also see drivers recklessly driving “bacha logs” of these “civil servants” to their schools in the morning and afternoon school rush hours or to KFC and Mc Donald’s for an afternoon junk bite. Their driving is anywhere close to being civilized. I would say that as Pakistan has made tremendous economic growth in the past few years, what better investment could be then to invest in super luxury Japanese cars for taking care of our dear bureaucracy who live in palatial homes in uptown sectors of Islamabad and whose families have 5-6 servants for every menial job one can imagine at home. After all, Pakistan has now become a developed country.

The beauty of all this is that all of this is coming out of tax payer’s pocket, kickbacks in “delayed” contracts or the debt money. All of it, running on expensive petrol, while the rest of nation yearns for a few pounds of CNG, in long queues outside the gas stations. While 80% children of this nation don’t have access to basic schooling, you see “mummy papa daughters and sons” of these civil servants in TCS offices tightly holding on to prospectuses of one or more of foreign universities in Australia and the US of A. When they return to their cars, the driver steps out to open the door for them, least their pretty manicured hands do not get soiled with the dirt of the Capital.
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black sheep.

Behind the neatly pressed suit of Clark Kent was Superman. The world could never have imagined that such a sissy would in reality be such a brave, strong and fast savior of everyone who needs help.

Musharraf over-threw Nawaz Sharif in a coup in 1999. He promised that niether Nawaz Sharif nor Benazir Bhutto will have any share in the future of Pakistani Politics.

These days Benazir Bhutto is making quite astonishingly anti-[Pakistani People (pro) General(all pun intended :D)] sentiment public comments.

Musharraf lately was very harsh on the lawyers. A few days ago a clash outside the Election Commission office in Islamabad became a humiliating scene and upon probe the top leadership of Islamabad police was suspended and replaced.

Musharraf is expected, rather has said to remove his army uniform after the presidential elections that will take place this Saturday. People are drawing parallels with his broken promises of not giving or even thinking of giving due/undue share of Pakistani politics to Benazir Bhutto with his promise of removing his uniform.

Will Musharraf be the next [elected] President?
Will Musharraf remove his uniform?
Will Benazir come to the stage as the Prime Minister of Pakistan?
Will she be any better than the all-in-all Musharraf (with his puppets in the forefront)?
Will all of these pave way for Pakistan to salvation or doom?

All these questions will be answered shortly, we[I guess] can not do much but wait.

But the question still remains…behind the army uniform, is there a patriot or a cold-hearted traitor?

Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, and able to leap…

Up, up and away.

I wish!

Ramadan is supposed to teach us Taqwa and self-control.

The other day I was coming from my home to office and I saw two people fighting near F-7/2 girls college.

Another day two people were fighting in the green-belt between H-8 and I-8 so badly that one of them was bleeding.

It’s a real pity to see people following exactly the opposite of what Ramadan is all about.

From the looks of it, it’s more of a dieting by day and crash-food at evenings.

But Ramadan is only to be gauged by Almighty Allah, so I probably shouldn’t be commenting much.

Have a blessed Ramada.

In case you missed the Out-of-Temper rant by Ahmad Raza Kasuri on Geo’s Program The Great Debate … here’s a clipping.

In my opinion, Ahmad Raza Kasuri did mention some valid points but he lost worth of all his words when he started abusing and Man, some serious abusing it was.

On Sunday the show was telecasted and on Monday a fellow-professional-Lawyer of his helped himself to a good black coating on Kasuri’s face. Kasuri is defending the case of Musharaf as Army Chief and President in Supreme Court.

Resisting from spraying …. on Flickr.

In wikipedia, an interesting entry was made, in relation to the Kasuriites offended by his use of Kasuri word with his name and acting such like …

Heads of Kasurites have bowed down because of nefarious language used by Ahamd Raza Khan Advocate in “The Great Debate” on GEO TV at 1905hrs at GEO TV on September 23, 2007. The last portion of the first episode of the programme “The Great Debate” shows Pakistani Public the ugly face of the Presidential Camp. Pakistani & International media should avoid using word “Kasuri” with the name of Ahmad Raza Khan Advocate.

You Say What?

Seems like our dear MNA can discuss anything these days that can avert the nation eyes from Emergency and the rising suspicions associated to it. Finally their eyes caught the RED FLAG on the new flashy Thousand Rupee’s Note.

The person who designed these notes clearly left many points … or may be he was such a fan of Turky that he thought of honoring Turkey like no-one ever did … hence BRAVO, it’s almost the flag of turkey we’ve on our prestigious new Rs. 1000’s note.

One MNA debated that: “As per rules the cabinet committee approved the designs of the new notes before sending it to the prime minister for approval. The cabinet and the prime minister are also involved in the process”. Seems like cabinet is too fond of saying YES to everything without passing a second glance.

BTW, the older currency in run was far better off in quality and size than these newer ones. The paper quality’s taken a deep plunge down, size is small, striking similarities in denominations as Rs. 20 and Rs. 5000 … and ironically, SBP is trying to convinmce us that now even blind can tell difference berween the denominations; it’s only us, the ones with eyes, having difficulties.

So in 60 years we at last managed to give pakistan a RED LOOK …!

For more: Click through BBC
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In here, a policeman rides a bike on the wrong side of a one-way road with his helmet hung behind him, violating two laws at a time … wow !!

I’ve seen this typical show of out-lawish-ness a lot specially in Peshawar More, G-9/4 which is a one-way road but still even police loves coming from the wrong way … when will we start following simple laws like this made for our benefits, will our Pakistani Brethren will ever learn to follow law with due regard INSIDE Pakistan, Hope soo …!

BTW, can you guess which place is this??

Picture Courtesy: Daily Times!

With rest of the media being strangled in PEMRA Ordinance, everyone around is wondering about the Lord Run Channel PTV … if all that will apply on this our bachpan ki yaad channel too!!!

I was going through this poston a Pakistani blog, stating:

Government owned channel has a limitation but private channels don’t. In era of PTV a joke existed that if PTV tells that Two persons were killed in an accident multiply it with Ten (10) then you will get the exact figure of killings, now by the help of private channels we don’t need to multiply it with ten. This all mathematics is being done already by private channels. Private channels you need congrats to be good in mathematics.

How true the statement is … if you switch on to 9 PM waala PTV Khabarnaama you’ve to actually go out and look around to confirm if it’s teh same pakistan … according to lord run TV we live in a free and progressive country where you have never heard of words as loss, debt, poverty, strikes, hunger, murders, thefts, killings … we live in a world of pure bliss, Alhamdolillah. Islamabad, specially, is the city where people were always unaware of these strikes, protests, and they still are … who cares what’s going on in here … our awaam is cent percent khush by the progress alhamdolillah.

So I dedicate this to all those who are ruling us for years and years and devoiding us of our basic rights – We salute you … We’ll still follow you … God save the King …!

God save our gracious KING
Long live our noble KING,
God save the KING:
Send him victorious,
Happy and glorious,
Long to reign over us:
God save the KING.

O Lord, our God, arise,
Scatter His enemies,
And make them fall:
Confound their politics,
Frustrate their knavish tricks,
On thee our taxes we fix:
God save us all.

Thy choicest gifts in store,
On him be pleased to pour;
Long may he reign:
May he defend His laws,
And ever give his allies cause
To sing with heart and voice
God save the KING.

Ciao!